jenks



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GEO. C. JENKS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

LETTER-BOX.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 30,324, dated October 9, 1860.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE C. JENKS, of New York, county of New York, and State ot New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Boxes for the Reception of Letters; and I do hereby declare thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact description ot the same, reference being made to the annexed drawing making a part of this specification, which is fully described herein and in which similar letters indicate similar parts throughout the figures.

My invention is designed to render the boxes placed for the reception of letters at post oitice stations so secure that the letters i cannot by any possibility be abstracted through the entrance aperture.

It consists in a method of so securing the channel to the receptacle that a letter cannot be drawn out by a string charged with adhesive matter, or otherwise.

In the drawings annexed, Figure I is a vertical section exhibiting the general arrangement interiorly of the chute and its valves, and of the receptacle for the letters. Fig. II is a side view of the same, and Fig. III is of a part in detail.

At (ce) is shown the exterior wall of t-he letter box, at the inclined chute, and at the receptacle for the letters. A door or valve is placed at the entrance. to this, as seen at (d), which is hinged at one edge, as shown, so that it may be shut closely, as in Fig. II, or opened out, as in Fig. I. At the bottom of the chute is another door or valve e) hung in grooves at the sides, so that it may be allowed to move vertically. These two valves are to be connected by any train of mechanism which will cause the one to be always closed while the other is open. In the drawings, this is shown as effected by a bell crank (f) centered at (g), the longer arm of which being slotted, plays upon a pin projecting through the groove, from the sliding door (e) and causes that to rise and fall as the lever (f) is operated. The other arm of the bell-crank is attached by a con necting rod (It) to the hinged door (el), as shown and thus when that door is opened out for the admission of a letter, to the position shown in Fig. I, it causes the other door (e) to be raised across the end of the chute.

The difference in the lengths of the arms of the bell-crank gives to the door (e) a greater range of travel than the other door has, and hence, before (d) can be opened to the slight distance'due to the thickness of the plate (a) the door (e) will have been raised sufficiently to close the aperture at that end. So soon as the hand of the party depositing the letter is removed from (d) the door (e) falls by gravity to the position shown in the dotted lines in Fig. II, closing that at (d), and permitting the letter to slide down. Along the face of is a projecting ledge (a), extending out into the channel o1' passage to the receptacle, and inclining downward, and a short distance below it may be a similar ledge from the opposite side, as at (75), and still farther below another (Z), from the same side as that on (e). It these all extend out so far as to pass the general line m .fr they would eiect the closing of the receptacle against the introduction of any instrument of the character ot' nippers, but, if any derangement of the doors should occur, or if those were not used, a string might still be introduced, which, charged with adhesive matter, would draw up letters from the receptacle at the bottom. To guard against this the lower edges of these projections are to be so formed that such withdrawal will be prevented, and this may be by making them of a toothed or serrated form, as seen in Fig. III, whereby anything aiiixed to said string would be detached when it was withdrawn, in a manner well known.

I claim- So notching, or otherwise forming the edge ot the ledge or ledges placed in the channel to the receptacle, that the withdrawal of a letter shall be thereby prevented substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

GEO. O. JENKS.

Witnesses:

J. P. PmssoN, J. I-I. MAYNARD. 

